_ E 

Ov 0(0 

I $3 2R 



THE 
AS DELIVERED, ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1832, 

56th ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 

BY DR. CHRISTOPHER CARLETON RIOE 
Orator of the Day, 

HONORARY MEMBER OP THE " PAINTERS' ASSOCIATION ;" 



IN THE 



BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH, 



DELANCY CORNER OP CHRYSTIE-STREET, 



BEFORE THE 



SEVERAL CIVIC SOCIETIES IN NEW-YORK. 



" PUXCHRtfM EST REIPUBLICE BENKEACERE ETIAM BENEDICERE HAUD 
ABSURDUM EST." SALLUST. 



PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OP THE OENERAL DELEGATION. 



PRINTED BY E. CONRAD, 

NEW-TORK, 1832. 



COPY-RIGHT SECURED. 




Class E "2/ ?6 

Book Jik 

CopyrightN : ? 3£ 7< 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE % \^' > 

AS DELIVERED, ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1832, 

56th ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 

BY DR. CHRISTOPHER CARLETON RICE, 
Orator of the Day, 

HONORARY MEMBER OF THE " PAINTERS 1 ASSOCIATION ;" 
IN THE 

BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH, 

DELANCY CORNER OF CHRYSTIE-STREET, 
BEFORE THE 

SEVERAL CIVIC SOCIETIES IN NEW-YORK. 



" PCLCHRUM EST REIPUBLICJE BENEFACERE ETIAM BENEDICERE HAUE 
ABSURDUM EST." -SALLCST. 






PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE GENERAL DELEGATION* 



PRINTED BYE CONRAD, 

NEW-YORK, 1832. 



COPY-RIGHT SECURED* 









New- York, \2thJuly, 1832. 



Dr. Christopher C. Rice, 



SIR At a meeting of the " Painters' Association." held pursu- 
ant to public notice, and also in behalf of the General Delegation and Com- 
mittee of Arrangements for celebrating the 56th Anniversary of American 
Independence, it was unanimously resolved, 

" That the unfeigned thanks of this Association, and that of the General 
Delegation, be presented to Dr. Chkistopher C. Rice, for his able and 
eloquent Oration, delivered before the several Civic Societies, in the Bethel 
Baptist Church, Delancy-Street, New-York, on the 4th inst. and that a 
Copy of said Oration be respectfully requested for publication." 
By order of the Committee of Arrangements, 

Thos. YV. Pooley, Richard Bennett, 

YVm. B. Errickson, George Darlington- 

Thomas C. Hurlick. 



The Reply. 

Delancy-Street, July 13*7* 1832. 
Gentlemen, 

Your very polite note is now before me ; in it you request a Copy 
of my Oration. Allow me to say, that while I duly reciprocate your kind 
manifestation of esteem, I herewith enclose it for your disposal ; resting as- 
sured, that the hand of philanthropy will in some measure shield its inele- 
gance, when submitted to that candour which received it on the day of our 
'■' Anniversary." 

YVilh sentiments of sincerity, I am, 

Gentlemen, most respectfully, yours' 

CHRISTOPHER C. RICE. 
Messrs. Thos. W. Pooley. Richard Bennett. Wm. B. Errickson, 
George Darlington, Thomas C. Hurlick. 



Southern Disti 




L.S.i 



Southern District of New-York, to wit : 

Be it Remembered, That on the sixteenth day of July, An- 
no Domini 183-2. George Darlington, of the said District, hath 
deposited in this Office the title of a Hook, the title of which is in 
the words following, to icit : Oral ion as delivered on the fourth of 
July. 1832, 56lh Anniversary of American Independence, by Dr. 
Christopher Carlrton Rice. Orator of the Day. honorary member 
of the Painters' Association, in the Bethel Baptist Church, Delan- 
cy corner of Ch ystir-Strc-t, before the several Civic Societies in XeivYork. — 
" Pnlchrum est RrpublicaiBenefacere ctiam Benediccre haud absurdum est." — 
Sallust. Published at the request of the general delegation ; the right whereof 
he claims as proprietor. In conformity with an Act of Congress, entitled "an 
Act to amend the several Acts respecting Copy-Rights. Fred. J. Betts, Clerh 
of the Southern District of New-York. 



ORATION. 



FELLOW CITIZENS, 

The Anniversary of our National Independence again re- 
turns. Its pleasing reminiscenses and associations, assail with 
renovated vigor, the citadel of our warmest affection. Its at- 
tendant buoyancy holds the brightest spot on the waste of our 
memory, collecting as if the aggregate ebullitions of filial pa- 
triotism, gushing pure and fervid from the font of " amor pa- 
trice" or love of country, which springs up in every soil, and is 
naturalized in ever}' clime — 'tis indigenous to none — 'tis essen- 
tial to all, as by its influence we recognize a much loved link — a 
tie which connects the individual and his country, into a unity 
of existence. Its spell endears to the swarthy Arab, his sandy 
desert ; its charm casts around the heart of the roaming savage 
a sweet resuscitative, as he wanders through his forest " trail." — 
It sends the manly tear of natioual affection coursing down the 
bronzed and war hacked cheek of the steel clad soldier, when 
after years of distance from his home, he bends forward as his 
extatic ear catches the soft cadence of some mellow song or 
word he heard in earlier days, when the father of his childish 
years and the green fields of his boyhood were around him ; 'tis 
that same feeling which causes the American on the 4th of July, 
no matter whether beneath a torrid or frigid zone, or in this the 
land of his nativity, to revisit in person or in spirit, the " home" 
of" his sires, the grave of his ancestors, or the shrine which once 
witnessed the proudest declaration, the noblest document, and 
holiest " magna charta" which integrity ever framed, patriotism 
signed, or liberty consecrated, by " the lives, the fortunes, and 
the sacred honors 1 ' of a nation's " conscripti." 

We must acknowledge that there is in the day which com- 
memorates the nationalities of any people or country, a some- 
thing which exacts an innate and indefinable tribute of respect 



4 

from the philanthropist, and when that day blends the festivity 
of its own nationality with the hour of its freedom, as also the 
restoration of the rights and privileges of other nations, made 
conscious of them by sympathy, and urged on by example to 
their attainment ; so in proportion must a dignified hilarity of the 
occasion predominate, in as much as it possesses the flash of the 
gem, and also its solidity or intrinsic materiality, cognizable and 
appreciable, both in moral and physical properties, to the human 
family in general. That this " axiom" bears forcibly on the 
present is evident to conviction, whose impulse now bids me con- 
gratulate the native and adopted citizen of these " United 
States." 

A 4th of July once beheld a band of men, flinging away all 
considerations of danger and hazard, shaking off in one proud 
moment, the trammels of political servitude, holding at bay " the 
little tyrants of their fields," unfurling the banner of native her- 
editary rights, and planting it upon the unhonored grave of fo- 
reign aggression. 

The Freeman greets this day's return with all the haughty 
consciousness of innate worth, for though his pride is great, his 
benevolence is irresistible; the one knows no inferiority, the 
other no superiority, save that of virtue's excellence. The Pa- 
triot welcomes its return as the Astreari's festival of democracy 
and self government. The Statesman hails it as the "Zws//«//i" 
of regenerated policy, made sacred by the life's blood of a Hec- 
atomb of offerings ; and lastly- the slave, poor injured man ! in- 
hales as if an incense from its morn, which buoys up in fond 
anticipation his prostrated mental faculties ; he feels proud yet 
knows not why ; he feels pleased yet cannot tell how; his sus- 
ceptible heart at the mention of its reversion, expands; yet how 
to explain its action ? He can find no ministering interpreter; 
the historic page can give no additional impetus to his feelings; 
he is incompetent to its perusal. — But no matter how prostrated 
in acquisition by circumstances, no matter how degraded in 
moral relations I \ proscription, no matter how fallen in station 
by imagined or political inferiority, there still exists within the 
breast of each individual, a scintilla of Promothean extract, by 
whose lit 'id coruscations a light is developed, that shows through 
nature's mirror a countenance, on which the impress of an Al- 



5 

mighty hand is set, which proves him to be a son, a man whose 
legitimate inheritance from above, is civil and religious prerog- 
ative. Yes, "man is man" — who can be more? lie feels so, 
and sees on the distant horizon of July's 4th morn, a star of 
hopeful portent beaming along the vista of his murdered free- 
dom ; it cheers him : he forgets, forgives, and in a blaze of so- 
cial philanthropy exclaims, America! America! Frcedom^s 4<A 
of July, " the sword of the Lord and of Washington ! /" 

In congratulating you upon our 56th anniversary of national 
existence, T feel myself imperceptibly lapsing as if into a species 
of reverie or recollective paroxysm, whose doctrine inculcates 
the maxim of reflection, and whose tenets bid me observe, con- 
trast, analyze, weigh and unite; thus we by a knowledge of elemen- 
tary simples, judge by analogy the nature of compounds, as ef- 
fects or compounds must be the result of primal simples or cau- 
ses; and this by application contains a moral deduction, prov- 
ing that the establishment of governments, based by free institu- 
tions and elective principles, constituting the foundation of a re- 
public, must have originated from experiments made upon other 
species of legislation ; and this contemplative theory gives birth 
to a preservative doctrine of paramount importance, that is as it 
effects not only the persons at present enveloped in participating 
the benefits of our present mode of legislating, but that of other 
countries and people now being advancing towards political pre- 
eminence, and also that of countries and people as yet in the 
embryo of discovery. How arduous the task to enter upon the 
analysis or synchesis of a country, whose theme genius has ex- 
hausted its powers upon : how difficult to retrace that labyrinth 
of mystery on which eloquence has expanded its richness, dili- 
gence its industry, and patriotism its genial sunbeam. But re- 
membering the story of the aspiring Phaeton, I may be allowed 
to apply the same words of the writer, " magnis tamen excidit 
ausis." 

At this period 'twere indeed superfluous to enter into a mi- 
nutiae of detail, or recapitulation of all the events connected with 
this country's transitions from her once insignificant non-iden- 
tity, to her present elevated scat among the nations of the 
world, or her nameless infancy to her adolescing maturity. I 
am perfectly aware, we love to dwell on any thing in which our 



6 

individual or collective peace, or pleasure is involved. Though 
often we hear of the battles and sieges of a Caesar, aPompey, a 
Wallace, a Napoleon, or a Washington, though familiar our 
ears are to the history of our Revolution, yet even at this mo- 
ment, how attentively we'd listen and hang upon the lip of the 
war-worn veteran when borne on in his narrative by the flowing 
tide of heightened recollection, as " he'd shoulder his crutch 
and show how fields were won ;" there is nothing more gratify- 
ing to an individual than a recurrence to such circumstances, 
and to the Patriot what can be dearer than those of " his own, 
his native land." Uut e'er I gently draw aside the screen 
which isolates the past from the present, or sligbtly touch on 
any of its particulars, I cannot avoid remarking how bright this 
day smiles around us, how gratifying are our anticipations, bow 
great the benefits we enjoy;but we ought remember bow dearly they 
were purchased. Remember how cautiously ought we wear our 
honors, and bow diligently preserve them. I might here remind 
you of a custom which, at one time, was prevalent amongst the 
Egyptians (founders of many a republic.) They enwreathed with 
their laurel'd trophies the deathly Cyprus leaf, and suspended 
IB their banquet halls, urns, which contained the ashes of their 
fathers and friends who fell in defence of their country, and sa- 
crificed their lives at the altar of her peace ; thus, in the gayest 
hour of mirthful triumph diffusing a chastened joy, an admoni- 
tion moral and useful, speaking in substance more forcible than 
words, — how we should, — we ought purchase, and when pur- 
chased — preserve our material happiness; thus proving that plea- 
sure, though intrinsically similar, yet should not be appreciated 
by weight, by quality, or by quantity, but as its attainment 
was attended by more peril or cost, so in an equal ratio ought 
we appreciate its possession and preserve its existence. If then 
they of olden democracys adopted such intuitive precaution, so 
oujrht we, of modern Republics, as both are alike in result. And 
if adopting it we pause for a while ; what mingled associations 
of pride, of humility, of joy, of pain, will rise like the succeed- 
ing surges of the Baltic, in perspective with alternate throes of 
dignified admiration ! In glaucing over the pages of our early 
history, then was the time that Usurpation sat enthroned, and 
injustice offered from its polluted censor incense to Despotism. 



7 

Then corruption grasped the helm of influence and piloted nSBfin 
into the haven of moral debasement. Then the tinsel of gilded 
servitude compensated him for the loss of all that man ought 
prize — rational liberty. Men were not free, they were 
covered with the nugatory title of honor, they drank from the 
cup in which the pearl of their liberty was dissolved. They were 
not men with privilege, but slaves with nick-names; merit flour- 
ished, but 'twas upon the desert air. Ifitsoughtreward.it 
received it at the sacrifice of its integrity, or the light which could 
show it the path to distinction was plucked from the pile 
where its virtue expired. 

But man should uever repine much, as Providence often in- 
tends the darkest hours to render the transition more rapid, more 
cheersome. Vice often blushes itself into virtue, and from evils 
apparently most destructive, will benefits often result, the most 
beneficial. Tyranny then governed, but were it not for tyranny 
would our pilgrim ancestry ever have braved or explored the 
hoarse Atlantic's billow ; were it not for oppression, would the 
rock of Plymouth ever have received the houseless wanderers of 
a distant clime, or their little bark be moored within its har- 
bor's stilly bosom, would they have left their homes, their liberty, 
er their country,, to settle on the shore of the wolf and the red- 
man. No, no. 'Twas oppression which outlawed them into 
immortality, 'twas persecution which fettered them into undying 
glory. Yet in doing so, like the Anaconda, lately in our city, its 
virulence recoiled upon and wounded itself to death. 'Tis true that 
they suffered all that men could bear, the dangers of the win- 
ter's blast, the storms of the deep, the miasma of the swamp, the 
tomahawk of the Indian, the recollection of proscription, all 
these disheartening events arose and occupied the foreground of 
the gloomy Panorama, which destiny placed before them. But 
their mind, conscious to itself of purity in intention, smiled at 
danger, proudly spurning the foetid draughts of Europe's bond- 
age, raised the bruised flag of self administration, ami resolved,, 
that if but on a desert shore, Liberty should have one altar erect- 
ed by the hands of a Freeman ; or, if no land received them, 
they'd embark their all upon the ocean of boundless extent, and 
as the Athenians of old, imagine their ships a country, and them.- 
selves a Republic. But fortune granted them a shore, industry 



& 

a settlement, the red man a protection, and heaven a sustenance. 
Oh ! glorious was that morn for mankind in general, else per- 
haps the waves of the tameless deep would still have lashed in 
its rude garb the wild shores of this Republic. Liberty be consi- 
dered but as the fitful emanations of deranged conjecture. Phil- 
osophy have slumbered in the firmanent of a Franklin, or Patri- 
otism never have gleamed from the cradle of a Jefferson. 

Greatness sometimes is the death-blow to Peace. Ambition 
crept in amongst them. Jealous usurpation again emigrated. 
Their laws were insulted, their remonstrances rejected, the de- 
mon of innovation forged taxes and menaced their rights. Yet 
here is another instance of good resulting from evil, did they not 
feel the galling pressure of intolerance; did they not see the dan- 
ger of war ; did they not experience the strength of man when 
called from " home" on the defensive ; they might never have 
attained by experience the judiciousness of a revolution. Was 
it not by learning that they afterwards became fit to teach? Was 
it not by fighting and winning the battles of others, that they be- 
came acquainted with military tactics ? Yes, they practised a- 
gainst a valiant nation — whose war cry " Liberte ou Mort" is 
written on the " Fleur de Luce" of France, and the Canadas, and 
afterwards practised for themselves against a no less brave one 
— the meteor flag of England's " red and blue" — at New Orleans. 
They with justice, saw that the stream of power, which flowed to 
enrich a foreign Prince, might easily be turned to enrich a na- 
tive citizen. The issue proved it. But England ought to have 
known that the chains she forged pressed too severely upon its 
victim not to snap from around her. She ought to know that her 
enactions and exactions flared too much, not soon to be consu- 
med, and that justice, though for a short time, trampled upon, 
must ultimately shoot up in all its pristine bloom. Rational li- 
berty possesses, in itself, a resurrectionary quality, a principle 
which the Pelian piled upon the Ossa of incarcerated privileges, 
can never bury ; 'tis vain for luxurating bigotry, or prejudiced 
favouritism to oppose its advance. Like the Roman Victor of 
old it drags them both captive behind its triumphant car. Na- 
tions governing ought always be guided by their constituents, 
and conform themselves to the imperatives of existing circum- 
stances, yet tho' experiencing many lessons of morality. Go- 



vernmertts will often be blind to their own interest, it was such 
policy which plucked from the British Crown the gem of these 
United States, and it is such policy which threatens now the fin- 
al separation from her diadem of a brilliant, not of such extent 
as this Republic, but a green Utile triple Emerald, which sheds a 
halo of security around her. 

How evident it is proved by a revolution of trials, that the ex- 
actions of a people when originating from principled conviction 
of its honesty, always attain that permanency in issue and suc- 
cess, which those resulting from the lancinating effervescences 
of jaundiced passion never can, nor does; the one seems peren- 
nial as the author of its being, the other fleeting as the germ of 
its birth, the one results from transientcy, the other from the 
world of the heart, — 'twas such a principle which warmed the 
breasts of the regenerators of our land ; they felt its generous 
glow equally in the night of their bondage as in the day of their 
independence, its influence placed (though in political thraldom) 
the laurel on their brows, though wearing on their feet the fetter. 

It was such which nerved the arm of a Hancock, Henry, 
Franklin, and Carroll, when urging on their countrymen to as- 
sert their prerogative as freeborn men ; proving, that rebellion to 
tyrants is obedience to God — such might be recognised in the 
words of a Henry, when imploring the God of battles to aid his 
country, and closing, by his fervent aspiration : " Give me Li- 
berty, or give me Death." 

Death came in storms. Carnage rode by in whirlwinds, every 
breeze was freighted with the life's offering of a Freeman. 
Where then was the spot he did not fall 1 Where the stream 
Whose waters were not crimsoned by his blood 1 Where the val- 
ley in which he did not lie with his face to the sun, and his feet 
to the foe, in defence of his " stars and stripes V Where the shore 
or the cliff where his bones did not bleach ? The land drank the 
red living tide of patriots, as a ransom for their children's free- 
dom. Bunker Hill, Monmouth, Trenton, and Lexington, con- 
jure up your dead. Charleston, Saratoga, and Yorktown, come 
and bear testimony of a Nation's wrath, when called upon to as- 
sert its legitimacy. 

'Twas suspected by Europe that avarice and " Yankee am- 
bition" was the main spring of America's Revolution, But let 



It) 

galled ones- wince. It struck at the root of ill obtained power; 
twice is he armed whose cause is just. This motto floated in 
sight of the Oppressor, the security of its flag-staff showed that 
the expanded powers of mental energy, by the friction of In- 
tolerance, developed the embryo of retributive justice, which now 
raised its faulchion against their conflict ; Monarchs from it 
learned that they ruled not by " divine jwrmission" but by the 
people's permission, whose exclusive prerogative is " divine." 
Rulers considered power to be peculiar, to be their hereditary 
honors, and privilege to be granted subjects, agreeable to the 
wise dispensation of a gracious Kingly Sovereign. Nor is this 
at present in monarchical governments dissolved ; titles are the 
pass-words amongst those " Lords of a day." Enervating 
Luxury its attendant, wrested from the labor and toil of those 
class of men, which Kingly charnels repudiate, but which free- 
Republics appreciate, as the bone and sinew, the rampart of a 
nation, I mean the honest, industrious tradesman. 

How delusive is the light of that Political Creed where man 
is reflected on for the adoption and honest pursuit of Occupa- 
tion or Trade — how transient the beam of security which such 
narrowed ideas ding around it — 'twill shine for a while, but its 
quivering ray be as the ignis fatuus, orphosphorctted Hydrogen, 
which overchanges decaying mortality, showing to the world the 
putrefactive continuity which festers beneath the expiring frame 
of its constitution. Where, I would ask, is the nation great 
where the Tradesman is degraded? Where the country happy 
where he is not encouraged ? Where the people respected, 
where he is not valued l Is it not he who ransoms improve- 
ment, pushes forward art, and fosters science ; we must be con- 
vinced that our advances toward moral or political aggrandize- 
ment turns upon the pivot of his exertions — how vain for us that 
Nature unfolds her rich bosom ; how n igatory the appearance 
of her exuberant medium, the earth with its parturiating produc- 
tions, till the Tradesman ruffles up his sleeve and bares his mus- 
cled arm. Both in modern and ancient times we find him 
amongst the brightest ornaments of science and art. If 1 were 
to point to a Chiron, a Dedalus, a Praxiteles, or an Angelo, i. 
Wren, a Cosmon, or a Fulton. In the advantage and excellence 
of Trades consists the rnaguct wluch ensures the affection of 
posterity. 



11 

The Athenian territory was one time very limited ; ages had 
revolved. They had nearly forgotten the very name of sell-go- 
vernment, and every vestige of national existence had dwindled 
into oblivion's torpor. The Greeks had succumbed to the nerve- 
less Ottoman. But the moment the tocsin of Freedom rung-, 
then the relics of ancient sculpture, the garments, the armour, 
the monuments of former greatness, were appealed to; and then 
did the Tradesman's prototype, proclaim — for a nation to be 
great she has got to be free — and if to be free generally, she h«s 
got but to will it ! ! ! The commerce of a country depends upon 
its productions, the productions upon the fostering of its Trade, 
that is, its merchants and its mechanics ; it is, it can be the 
only mirror to reflect a country's power. Oppression dare not 
enter where it prospers, the trumpet which sounds the " ad- 
vance" of the one, sounds the " retreat" of the other; this is one 
of the first great benefits of Union and Republican Legislation. 

But to return, this period was most trying to the struggle of 
this country for national life, swarms of military locusts preyed 
upon the vitals of the land ; the treasury was then exhausted ; 
commerce impeded ; disaffection spreading its withering breath 
around ; disunion finding many a votary; bribery disseminating 
its sparks of desertion ; every nation which attempted a re- 
formed government defeated, herself convulsed by hurricanes of 
armed, equipped and war-nursed soldiery. But her cause was 
based by the rights ot man, erected by virtue, sustained by prin- 
ciple ; consequently would, ought, and was crowned by success, 
just as it ought to be. The rocking convulsions of the earth do 
but resuscitate its frame by a revolution of its position, and har- 
monize its jarring sounds ; even the thunders of the serial realm 
do but tend to restore to an equilibrium its elementary policy ; 
and so in a national sense of the axiom, these revolutions are 
often essential to obtain national results. And as tlie ga} r and 
stately vessel, robed and decked in all the pageantry of 
crowded white, yet languid sails and streaming penants sick- 
ens in the calm and lolls over the unripled mirror of the 
summer's ocean ; but soon the breezes rustle in her shrouds, 
the sky is overcast, the tempest lowers ; it bursts, moment- 
ary phosphorisms sparkle from the waves, the vengeance of 
the storm threatens final dissolution to the straining bark, her 
timbers groan — but soon the tempest exhausts its violence, the 



12 

steady pilot guides at the helm, she rights, the sun returns, and 
the trim and well inan'd Barque rides the vassal surge trium- 
phant. Such was our country then, such the pdots she had, who 
would not " g.ve up the ship ;" they were not to he awed from 
their firm resolve by the dread pomp of danger and power — 
they were not to quit the helm because the storm of carnage 
darted its forked lightnings amongst them. No. ..The soldiers 
of '76 fought not for hire — they fought for right, and obtained it. 
Here again exists the next diiierence between a Kingly or Mo- 
narchal soldier, and the citizen or Republican one. The Roy- 
al soldier, as he is called, fights as his trade, the citizen soldier 
for the rights of man— to speak of one, is to do so with dread — 
to speak of the other, is to do so with respect — the one a sojourn- 
ing traveller, the other a domestic resident ; the one an expense, 
the other a gain. But I may be as'ed what can a Nation do 
without a large standing army ? 1 ask what do we do ? — we have 
none, orwhatdothey avail? Go to Paris on the three days of July, 
and my answer is given ; when the paving stone, of the citizen 
soldier, put to flight, the sworded Cuirassier ; but again, I am ask- 
ed, was it not a standing army that gave to undying fame the 
name of Marengo, Austerlitz, Vienna, Lodi, Borodino, and Wa- 
terloo, as also the heights of Corunua, St. Bernard, and Egypt? 
Yes. But who immortalized the Cordillencs, Ayechuco, White 
Plain.-, Quebec, and Columbia, as also the heights of Missolonghi, 
the Straits of Thermopylae, and the field of Guinstern, — the one 
may point to a Napoleon, a Ney, a Soult, or a Wellington — 
the other can point to a Tell, a Bozzaris, a Leonidas, a Bolivar, 
or a Montgomery ; but apart from such reasoning; it is insatiate 
revenge or thirst of an empty title, the necessity of self-defence, 
the dread of returning a plunderless nameless army, or at best, 
the anxiety to grasp a gory wreath, encrimsoned with the living- 
stream of a fellow being, urges on the one a reckless stranger, 
the other knows no world beyond the bosom of his domestic cir- 
cle. He fights but in its defence. He knows no anticipated booty 
but the preservation of his fireside, his country, and his altar. 
" Liberty draws his sword. Necessity stains it ; but victory re- 
turns it to its scabbard." 

He fights for the land his soul adored 

For happier homes, for altars free 

His only talisman — the sword 

His only spell-word — Liberty. 



13 

Here then is the next feature to be admired and preferred in 
a Republican Government. Such were the soldiers of " Ame- 
rica in days of old." Such in a body — such to a man— -and should 
necessity demand it, such would be found their successors now 
before me, treading on the path their fathers pointed to. 

But I ought not pass over so critical a period, and from an 
apprehension of following what is commonly styled " a beaten 
track," or least being considered trite in adverting to one who was 
the idol of his companions in arms, who was the solar centre of his 
country's hopes, round whose orbit they revolved, and reflected 
light of security, but on that side which turned to him ; under his 
guidance disaffection vanished into union; Reinstated confidence 
once more cheered the land; the lower of discontent brightened, 
before the sun of returning Equity, that showed the mouldering 
towers tottering, which concealed in their lurking holes, the 
dupes of Ministerial influence, who then, as the Spirits of dark- 
ness, conscious of their own deformity, fled the gaze as objects 
too disgusting for the Freeman to gaze upon. 'Tis true that there 
were, and no doubt, are many individuals, who possess some 
traits of character superior to Washington. But to find such a 
concentration of acquisitions, is rarely met with — He is gone — 
yes, forever. But on the day of Earth's final dissolution, when 
the ministering Angel presents in, at Heaven's tribunal, the 
parchment on which the name George Washington is written, 
the recording Angel will scarce find a blemish to wash away 
with her obliterating tear. 

America, for a score and half years, made strides to advance- 
ment and internal improvement ; science beamed forth, the 
plough of industry furrowed the site of the "wigwam;" the 
woodman's axe felled the forest tree, and raised on the spot a 
spire to the Supreme ; nor were these few or far between, as the 
Herculean Pyramids, rearing their heads in solitary grandeur on 
a desert waste. No. The Muses soon received their votaries, 
the home its visitants; the bramble was removed ; the rough at- 
tire of neglected nature pruned, and the rose and olive branch 
taught to grow and bloom. Commerce extended ; its sails 
whitened every sea — and all things painted to hope's delighted 
eye, the anticipation of a long and happy day. 

But the jaundiced eye of Denmark's victor, of Spain's humbler, 
or Trafalgar's conqueror, could scare cover its gnawing irritation,- 



14 

tke meteor of ill managed policy, induced her to try again and 
launch the red fl; ro of her proscription. Violence was once more 
offered. Seamen insulted, and thestrict conformity ofhonor tram- 
pied upon. War again was indispensable, and then might the 
rustic be seen flying from his native hills, to breast his country's 
iusulter. Again she was engaged ; 'twas, terrible but 'twas deci- 
sive ; she fought, bled, and gloriously conquer d. Her first war 
was won by her sons, on land ; her last by her fearless honest 

" Tars" 

Whose march is o'er the mountain wave. 

Whose home is on the deep. 
Is there not reason for congratulation, I ask? Is there not rea- 
son why America adopted such a cause 1 at the first war she saw 
herself a mere spot or seminal principle of interest, so far as li- 
terary or commercial existence was concerned ; her name a 
blank upon the sheet of nations ; but scarce lias half a century 
passed, when sec what a transition ! what an area of experiment 
successfully proved by Democracy ! View her present magni- 
tude. At the conclusion of peace at Paris, in 1783, the popula- 
tion was 1, "299,000. Now, about half a century, she wields the 
arm of moral and physlcial strength of 14,000,000. Now she 
is, as a spacious dome, throwing open her gates and receiving 
the exile of every nation; here the arm of Persecution is nerve- 
less, and its iron Uod falls prostrate from the hand that griped it. 
Man is viewed but by materiality or intrinsic worth. 

Yet as the due appreciating of all benefits is but by con- 
trast, so by ranging in imaginative order, the policy which 
guides Monarchical Institutions and those of Republican, the 
stubborn facts of essential benefits resulting from the one, 
must claim the " palma** of merited preponderance, which 
its inherent virtue exacts from the other ; far be it from 
me to insinuate that men of distinguished liberality and brilli- 
ancy shine not at the shrine of kingdoms. No. There are 
individuals before whose mighty master spirits I would bow with 
respect, that is, as regards mental pre-eminence, acquired by 
an advance in the vale of years. But as men, I hold it, that all 
are and ought to be " free and equal," — it is this consideration 
Which rolls up the surges of disparity, in the minds of those taint- 
ed with the paraphernalia of Pomp, essential to a Regal seat ; 
and if we trace the difierence which exists between Nations or 
Peoplc,we find it allemauates from one grand source — Wealth 



nurtured by the tawdry gloss of adulating Aristocracy, which 
imperceptibly insinuates its baleful spell, and pollutes the virgin 
purity of man's primal character; it is the Upas, whose pestife- 
rous aroma withers many a flower of rising valor and of budding 
worth — how many an individual, whose eye was a convex mirror 
of genial truth, whose tongue was a burning essence of glowing 
richness, whose cheek the midnight lamp had wasted of its ro- 
ses; yet writhing neath the influence of some 'malignant star' and 
knowing that Aristocracy held the entrance which led to the path 
"where Fame's proud Temple shone afar" — felt his inadequacy 
to reach it — dwindled into a cold unnoticed grave, without even 
a stone to tell where his neglected ashes reposed. One of the 
most prominent lineaments of monarchical policy is, that honors 
are lavished upon a few, to the total neglect, nay injury of many, 
independent of consequence ; whereas Republican institutions 
know no disparity, but that which merit asks ; it poises the scales 
of justice; it dare not deny his meet of reward to any, but where 
the balance turns it .awards ; every man may become a com- 
petitor. The pass-word is — 

" Palmam qui meruit — ferat — " 

It is thus all become concentrated into a unity of interest, and 
thus it is, by open, fair and manly trial, that science blooms, and 
mutual friendship decks the seat of Republican Justice — 'tis 
true, true we often sacrifice principle, in a more or less degree 
under all modes of Legislation, at the altar of policy. But 'tis 
for experience to say, not for one of my years to show, under 
what mode of administration more offerings are made. How ig- 
noble is the shallow mask of prejudiced bigotry or political jus- 
tice; resembling a gilded tomb, fair to the eye, without, but with 
rank cold hearts within. In a word we need but judge of effects, 
to judge of causes, and vice versa. 

If we look to Europe and mark its contending parties. Look 
at the Chamber of Deputies, at Paris. Look to the usurpation 
of Portugal, to the insidious precariousness of Austria ; to the 
falling contending state of Spain. Look to the Parliament of 
Britain and its Reform Bill ; a Parliament which boasts of its 
liberality, yet refuses to enact a Reform which would benefit so 
much her internal peace ; see them how lightly they ought 
wear their security, and why? because, the people are ufl>t 



1G 

represented ; they are misrepresented ; their interests arc 
sacrificed at the shrine of ambition, which uses them as 
stepping stones to attain office ; but most of all is because the 
people are not united, and 'twere as easily to establish a perma- 
nent representative Legislature where they are disunited, as for 
the Ephemeral overflowings of petty political feelings,to dissolve 
the " Union" of this Republic, or pluck a leaf from the chaplet, 
which binds these " United States'''' together into an identity of 
being. Look to Athens, to Palmyra, to Sparta, to Lacedemon, 
to Rome ; see them powerful, long as unanimity governed them ; 
but soon as the fiend of usurping ambition flung the torch of 
" Disunion'''' amongst them, they passed from the list of nations, 
and now live but in tradition. 

Union is the firm base of a Republic, and no govcrnmenl 
but a Republican ought, or can legislate, for the exigencies 
of a large or extensive country ; it is it, as you all must 
be aware, can only be calculated to support a national Po- 
lity ; nor could this, or any other Country's Executive or 
Legislative department, be properly managed, unless circum- 
BCribed in some measure bj the Judiciary — and thus far it has 
succeeded here, which, I believe, is the first experiment, and its 
benefits are spreading throughout he world ; which is becoming 
as if contagious with the example ; its beneficial philanthropy 
sunders the mist of narrowed views ; the time is passed, when a 
people, or a portion of a people, calling for assistance would be 
heard by unconnected individuals, with a cold neutral silence ; 
considering the cause and effect to be the exclusive concern of 
the country or people involved. But the enlarged precincts 
of regenerative reason shows that man, in every clime, is con- 
nected together by Nature's sympathy. We are all children of 
the same God. We are men — and that word should bury for- 
ever prejudice in oblivion. Religion tells us that we should as- 
sist each other; therefore, though we may differ in clime, in con- 
stitution, or occupation, our feelings for each other's welfare 
should concentrate, and like the triple " Shamrock" of my na- 
tive " Isle" they ought terminate in one stem — Civil and Reli- 
gious Liberty throughout the world. As men, then, on this the 
glorious Anniversary of our National Independence, let us hope 
that e\ery nation which struggles to obtain it may succeed. We 
have reason to hope so. We see Greece, freed from the chains 



17 

of Ottoman servility. France regenerated. Belgium establish- 4 
ed. Portugal on the march. Hibernia is rising to shake off the 
ignoble meshes of subordination. She has enlisted the interest 
of mankind in her struggle. She has taken down her Harps, 
her Shamrock wreathed Harps, resolving that they be once again 
struck by the minstrel hands of a freeman, and again wake the 
bold intonations, which once rung through " Tara's Hall." 

Fellow Citizens, before I would close my desultory remarks, 
I conceive it but just to say, though I greet you on the rever- 
sion of this day, I must not forget it's my duty to pay a tribute of 
grateful remembrance to them whom virtue claims as hers. 
Yes, I am convinced that there are some who, though more 
silent actors, yet feel, with no less sincerity, the thrill of devotive 
aspirations in our country's behalf; those of milder tempera- 
ment, whose gentler mood soothes man's more rugged nature, 
Woman's physical power, is left to him, but over that which 
comes within the reach of capacity — her energies are ever 
awake. The miasma ot the dungeon, the storm of the ocean, the 
chill of the winter's blast, can add no barrier to woman's devo- 
tion, either personal or national, when once called into action ; 
'tis ardent as the Syrian God, 'tis faithful as the Eastern Slave's 
devotion at the shrine of his Alia, when he comes, loaded with 
offerings, to the Altar. He stoops as he presents them — all his 
hope is, that they be received, sincerely as they are offered, 
never daring to hope for a return ; to them, then, I would say, 
on all occasions, we hope for your co-operation ; you cannot be 
with us upon all, but your good wishes will act as an incense 
vivifying our exertions for our country's prosperity. 

To you, my fellow Citizens, I would say, the blessings of 
Peace surround you ; the brightness of your fondest hopes nur- 
tures the young bud of your Liberty ; the advancement of your 
land illumines the page, the hoary annals of tradition. 

You Civic Societies, who have ever proved your sterling ad- 
herence to Republican principles — I know you will preserve it ; 
Preserve your principle, preserve your health, preserve yourselves 
for your homes, your wives, your children and your " Land." 
Let the gifts which you received from those who bled to obtain 
them, be guarded and seen in after years, and by after genera- 
tions ; showing, that though the sun of '76 is set, yet the twi- 



18 

light of its blessings remains behind it, to light around you the 
fond reminiscence of your inheritance ; bequeath them to your 
children. — Trophies may moulder. Crowns decay. Sceptres 
crumble — and Glory perish — but the gift of a Freeman to his 
child is immortal, when like a second Hannibal, he places him 
standing upon the altar of his God, and teaches his tender lips 
to say, " all the ends I'll aim at, shall be my Country's, my 
God's, and Freedom's." Let each annual reversion of July's 
Fourth be but a mirror of our mutual friendship, our peace and 
prosperity. Thus will Columbia's advancement prove that 
Usurped Power is at length become barren in discovery or 
nerve ; it can find no new invention to forge in its Cyclopean 
furnace, by which it could again incarcerate the human intellect. 
No. Its penal trammels, of ill-gotten sway, are burst asunder ; 
and the genius of Universal Emancipation exhultingly hails our 
native or adopted country — as she ought to be 

Great, glorious and free, 

First flower of the land 

And first gem ot the sea. 







LIBRARY OF 



CONGRESS 



011783U8 6 



